From the Pastures: From boom to bust

Well, the man upstairs has been very generous this month. I have gotten a goodly amount of rain that I really needed, along with hot temperatures and sunshine. That’s a perfect combination to grow forage. Anyone have to mow their lawns a lot lately? I have 6-foot-tall pearl millet and chest-high pigweeds — oops, forbs. They have a higher protein content and total digestible nutrients, or TDN, than alfalfa and grass galore. My sheep are almost “pig fat,” except for the ones with triplets on them. Now I’m hustling to keep up with the grass growth and mow under the fence to keep the volts up and my high school help went back to school. I went from boom to bust.

After the wheat was combined, I waited two weeks before grazing the red clover and weeds — oops, forbs. Then the good growing conditions started and it was time to plant my eight-way cover crop mix and I had 6-inch-tall forage to plant into and it was growing rapidly. What should I do? Well, I had the cover crop drilled in, we put back up the net fences that I’d taken down two weeks earlier and I made small lots to mob graze each lot.

The plan is to eat it down to the ground, move the sheep and maybe mow the foxtail that they did not eat and hopefully the forage will be short enough to allow the cover crop to germinate and grow up through the red clover and mostly foxtail grass. As in all of agriculture, we will see how this works out — to be continued.

After the flock gets done mob grazing the wheat field, I’m going to wean and move the old ewes off the farm and onto my farmettes. Then the lambs get all the good grass and the ewes make other farms look pretty.

I actually went on a four-day vacation last week and left my 17-year-old granddaughter in charge of the whole farm. You know, it was not burned down when I got home. She moved sheep, fed dogs, picked up and put down over 40 net fences and took care of a lot of little jobs that always pop up that you don’t plan on. Thanks a lot, Paige. We have to teach the next generation so they can take over when it’s their turn. I started by teaching Paige’s mother.